CRM, BI top list of most wanted business apps

A global study has found that the top-three mobile business apps on company wish lists is headed by Customer Relations Management (CRM), with applications with Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities the second most wanted app.

The study by IDC, sponsored by the global enterprise applications company, IFS, also reveals that, behind CRM and BI, Approvals and Authorisations with functionality such as approval of requisitions, purchase orders, and supplier invoices, was the third most wanted business app by more than 450 C-level executives worldwide.

In Australia, only 18% of companies, compared to 31% globally, indicated CRM – or management of sales, contracts, activities, and opportunities- was the mobile business app that would most significantly impact their business.

Furthermore, the survey revealed that mobile customer care/sales, integrated with the company's CRM system, were the key focus for mobility investments in the future, chosen by 41% of Australian respondents, compared to only 25% globally.

There’s also mixed comparisons between Australian companies and their overseas counterparts when it comes to the most wanted apps for BI ad Aprovals and Authorisations.

In Australia, 12% of respondents, and 13% globally, favoured BI capabilities such as for example KPIs and reporting.

There was a slightly greater difference between Australian companies and companies in other countries, in their liking for apps with Approvals and Authorisations functionality.

In Australia, 14% wanted Approvals and Authorisations apps, compared to10% globally, with functionality such as approval of requisitions, purchase orders, and supplier invoices.

IDC Program Director Jason Andersson, said ensuring a competitive advantage and enabling an even more productive workforce that gets access to correct data, even when they were on the move, was a “critical success factor in the future and a major focus for mobility solutions.”

“Mobility and mobile data solutions are part of the core foundation for ICT industry growth up to 2020,”Andersson said.

And, according to Rob Stummer, Managing Director at IFS Australia and New Zealand, “customers know exactly what they want when it comes to mobile functionality.”

“At IFS, we use customer feedback and this type of market research as the basis for development, which has resulted in a number of apps such as the IFS Sales Companion, IFS Quick Reports, and IFS Notify Me.”

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Peter Dinham is a co-founder of iTWire and a 35-year veteran journalist and corporate communications consultant. He has worked as a journalist in all forms of media – newspapers/magazines, radio, television, press agency and now, online – including with the Canberra Times, The Examiner (Tasmania), the ABC and AAP-Reuters. As a freelance journalist he also had articles published in Australian and overseas magazines. He worked in the corporate communications/public relations sector, in-house with an airline, and as a senior executive in Australia of the world’s largest communications consultancy, Burson-Marsteller. He also ran his own communications consultancy and was a co-founder in Australia of the global photographic agency, the Image Bank (now Getty Images).